Waterproof gloves including "breathable" waterproof gloves have been marketed for several years, and can be found in gloves manufactured for outdoor sports such as hunting, skiing, snowmobiling, and also for the comfort and protection of firefighters, policemen, uniformed personnel and those other persons who have outdoor employment.
These gloves, particularly the breathable styles, have been costly and difficult to manufacture. Usually, they consist of three principal components (a) a breathable, stretchable, waterproof barrier film suitably supported on a carrier web, (b) a textile fleece inner liner and (c) an outershell.
The prior art discloses the three component glove, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,257 and the references cited therein. The individual parts consist of an outer shell of glove shape configuration, usually of leather; an inner liner, generally fashioned from an insulator such as a fleece-like napped textile for skin comfort; and a membrane barrier fashioned into glove configuration from a breathable coated fabric or unsupported membrane and this is positioned between the inner liner and outer shell.
Each of the three components are fabricated to proper pattern size, then assembled into a three component glove or mitten by means of a stitching or adhesive bonding in place.
The number of steps, and the precision stitching necessary to properly assemble the item makes it very labor intensive and expensive. Generally, the stitching, or adhesive bonding, provides sufficient internal cohesiveness between parts to resist the withdrawal forces applied by the removal of the hand from the glove without allowing any disengaging of the component parts.